Chapter 3 - TWO PINK BLANKETS
The twins were named Rose and Lily.
Lena told me that the following morning.
I stood beside their bassinets while she sat in a wheelchair.
She was still weak.
Her back was bandaged.
Her hands trembled when she reached for the babies.
But when Rose began crying, something changed in her face.
She smiled.
A real smile.
Small.
Exhausted.
Beautiful.
“That's Rose,” she whispered.
I looked at the baby.
“How can you tell?”
Lena laughed softly.
“She cries louder.”
I smiled faintly.
“And Lily?”
She pointed toward the sleeping twin.
“She's the quiet one.”
I looked down.
Two tiny girls.
Dark hair.
Small fists.
My nieces.
I had spent fifteen years building an empire that made grown men afraid to speak my name.
And now I was terrified of holding a six-pound baby incorrectly.
Lena noticed.
“Would you like to hold her?”
I stared.
“Me?”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
I hesitated.
Then held out my arms.
Lena carefully placed Lily against my chest.
The baby moved.
Opened her eyes.
And looked at me.
Something inside me broke.
I had never wanted children.
Never imagined a family.
May you like
Never believed I deserved one.
But standing there with my niece in my arms, I realized how much I'd missed.
